Confinement
by Northern-Projection
Summary: Shinji Ikari has lived alone for almost two years now, until he opens and email and meets someone who promises to change this for him. A requested Kawoshin fiction, I hope you enjoy, reviews are more than welcome especially tough ones.


**Title:** Confinement

**Fandom:** NGE (concept inspired off Kagerou Project)

A/N: As requested. Don't worry I wrote it to where you don't need any prior information about "Kagerou Project" to understand it. And to the requester, I hope you don't mind Kaworu playing a more Ene role though, I would have loved to do it the other way around but I really have to set up a world before I can do that. It sucks though, I could really see Rei in a Konoha role and Kaworu in an Ene one but I want it the other way around.

A warm, orange glow shone threw the closed window blinds of the dark apartment bedroom. Shinji grunted tiredly from his bed, being awoken by the slight amount of light that managed to pass through, he sat up slowly and reluctantly. Turning his head towards the window he squinted his eyes and made his way to that side of the room to close the curtains, removing any sign of light from the cramped, small room.

Judging from the light, Shinji had guessed it was 6 maybe 7'clock now. He'd slept late again, typically he'd have awoken at 4 or 5, but time was really starting to get away from him.

Shinji hasn't left his room for almost a year and a half now, ever since he had been forbidden to pilot an Eva again, he had not been expected, or authorized to do anything. He was left confined in Misato's apartment home, and he was not allowed to exit out of these barriers. Any attempt to leave without permission resulted in immediate death, and remembering this warning, he tugged slightly at his chocker and sighed.

To them, they were being generous and allowing him to live despite his current uselessness even though they could have easily been rid of him and killed him on spot. He was being spared. Sometimes he wondered if just dying would have been better than living here like an extra burden to himself and others.

It was quiet, and lonely. The house was always empty because Misato and Asuka were always out working. The only time Misato came was to replenish his storage of food so that he wasn't starving. Shinji wouldn't see her because he wouldn't leave his room, but he knew when she, or some sort of personnel had visited by the new contents left for him. And as of late, Shinji had grown an unwanted pleasure for the amount of soft drinks left for him. At first, he was given an equal amount of every drink, water and juices, but obviously someone had picked up that out of all the beverages he was always out of sodas, so they increased the quantity by a few probably to feel even more generous on his behalf. He hated it, he felt as if with every can he was drowning away his misery with a fake, temporary sweetness. It was disgusting.

Regardless, he opened the mini fridge he kept in his bedroom, grabbed one, and made his way to his computer. His browsing was monitored, even though he was sure he had bored the people who were meant to be watching him long ago. He was restricted to a few select websites, and he wasn't allowed to email anyone but NERV personnel for emergencies, and while he has Misato's email to contact her, he knew never to do so. She was only a last resort.

He didn't know why he bothered scrolling through his email, all it was were NERV advertisements and messages about mission successes or "set-backs" in some half-assed attempt to keep him in the loop. These were emails everyone in Tokyo-3 would receive, he knew that much, except to them it was spam, to Shinji it was all he had left of his now past endeavors. He scrolled through the emails, while sipping carefully as his can occasionally. It was the usual drabble. Something that he once considered one of the most terrifying and stress ridden of subjects was now just an everyday topic like something you'd hear off the news.

It felt lifeless and empty.

As he continued scrolling absent mindedly, he froze entirely his can still to his lips. Widening his eyes and almost sputtering on his drink, he noticed an email from and unknown sender. It was titled "**Angel KARUNA**"

His eyes frozen in a shocked expression, he hesitantly put his drink down and just stared at the screen for a minute. Did spam mail manage to get through the security system? He debated opening it, was it was possible someone from NERV sent this to him for a laugh? Was there a virus attached that could ultimately take away his only access to the real world his last connections to NERV?

After a second, he decided, he didn't care. Moving his cursor he clicked the email.

Silence.

His computer wasn't even making a whirring sound anymore, the room was just quiet now.

Shinji blinked in confusion, and in that moment suddenly the silence was cut off by large alarms sounding from his monitor.

Startled, he fell backwards from his chair, and from the ground he could see the lights of his monitor flashing on and off against the walls of the black room, and the alarm sounds began to quiet down.

Soon the sounds stopped completely, the light disappeared and the room was dark once again.

Shinji, still winded from his fall, rubbed his head. He looked up, his computer monitor was pitch black, and all sound was void from it, he shook his head slowly.

"Of course," he muttered to himself, "I guess I've worn-out all my privileges."

Solemnly he made his way to his bed, with his back turned away from his computer, he curled up and shut his eyes. He couldn't feel anymore empty right now, he just wanted to sleep and never wake up.

Silence filled the room until his computer began whirring again. Shinji paid no heed, and was focused only on sleeping. A soft red light from his monitor began to fill and light up the room, it was calming.

Soon a voice could be heard.

"Shinji-kun?"

When Shinji didn't respond the voice piped up again in the same calm tone

"Shinji-kun? Shinji? Please wake up."

Shinji wasn't asleep, but he was in that half-sleep state that made him, feel drugged and sluggish. Someone was saying his name…

"Shinji." The voice urged a bit stronger but still calmed.

Shinji made a slight movement and opened his eyes slightly, someone was saying his name…calling him…suddenly realization hit him and he quickly shot up looking at his computer in shock.

"Ah! You've awoken! I hope I didn't startle you too much."

He couldn't even respond properly, shaking, he just got up from his bed and moved to the computer looking it up and down.

"Wh..what is this…?"

"What is what Shinji-kun?"

Shinji grunted irritably and whipped around, "Who are you? Show yourself!" he was turning and looking all around his room for a microphone or a recorder somewhere.

"Oh my apologizes," soon on the monitor, a character pixilated on the computer screen, he was a young boy looking fairly Shinji's age with white hair and noticeably cool red eyes. He popped up the already popped collar on his equally red sweater and made an "ahem" noise.

"Here I am, you'll have to turn towards me to actually see me" he laughed.

Shinji whipped around again to face his computer, staring, and after a second of awe, he pulled out his chair and sat down in it vexed. He began to click aimlessly at the desktop.

"What kind of program is this…" he muttered to himself.

"I am not a program," the boy replied loudly, with an unthreatening tone but loud enough to make Shinji jump, "my assigned name is KARUNA but my full name is Kaworu Nagisa, it is a pleasure to meet you Shinji Ikari."

Shinji stiffened, it was replying to him as if it could hear him, how could anyone have programmed something this advanced?

"You said your name was KARUNA?" Shinji questioned.

"That is correct."

Shinji immediately clicked the start button to head to the control panel, he had to see if he could somehow uninstall this thing.

Kaworu looked on patiently only moving when pop up windows were to appear in his place.

Shinji looked in the program panel and panicked, there was no sign of a KARUNA program, not even his full name showed up in the program list. He put his hand to his face and rose it up to brush back his hair in exasperation.

"You're obviously some weird virus." He decided.

And with that Shinji began to move to the start button again to open up the virus removal program he never thought he'd have to use. But as he attempted to open it, Kaworu grabbed his cursor and stopped Shinji's mouse. Now matter how hard Shinji shook is mouse the cursor wouldn't leave his grip.

"H-hey!"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Shinji-kun" Kaworu stated a little more seriously.

Shinji continued to shake his mouse around as Kaworu explained himself,

"I told you, I'm not just a program. Even if I were to let you do what you're trying to do, it wouldn't delete me, but it would nonetheless remove a large portion of my memory I would like to keep."

There was a light humor in Kaworu's tone, but something about it made Shinji feel bad, and after a second's silence, Shinji let go of his mouse and raised both his hands in an "I surrender" position.

"Thank you." Kaworu replied gratefully, letting go of the cursor and giving Shinji a calm smile.

It made him uneasy.

"Okay, who brought you here? Who sent you?"

Kaworu gave a light little laugh, and with the same-leveled soothing voice, he replied,

"No one sent me, I came to you on my own accord."

Shinji wasn't buying it.

"You? Came to me? Of all people you could seemingly go to?"

"But of course," Kaworu piped, "You and I are very much alike in many ways Shinji Ikari."

Shinji rolled his eyes, "How are you and I possibly the same" he muttered looking a little ways away from Kaworu.

"Well," Kaworu began, his tone turning a bit more serious again, "for starters, I believe you and I are both very much alone."

Shinji's stare became a little less angry and he turned back to the monitor, his eyes showing a mixture of sympathy and interest.

"We are both confined and restricted in a small world, away from any initial contact, it was a right that was stripped from you, but a fate I was born into."

He paused for a minute,

"Being able to become close with others, and communicate with someone, is something I've always dreamed, yet I noticed you seem almost content with living away from others, why is that?"

Shinji looked away again unable to look him in his eyes and replied,

"Of course I'm content with it, it's what I'm suited for, I'm just used to being alone, it's nothing new."

There was a strong minute of silence before Kaworu exhaled quietly,

"Well, that is why I am here Shinji-kun, none of your kind is designed to live alone forever, at least not completely alone, there will always be someone there for you, and you can be used to being alone but in the end we all crave to have someone or something to care for and care about."

Shinji blinked, "Kaworu I-"

"Shinji Ikari, I promise to show you the true bliss that comes with having someone by your side, I won't ever let you feel alone or lost, and in return I only wish for your happiness, this is why I came to you."

Shinji opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted again,

"And, I apologize for interrupting you again, but I would never wish to make you uncomfortable by invading your space, I will only be here if and when you need me, if you ever feel empty or alone, and if you ever need company I will be here, and only at your wishes."

Anything and everything Shinji had meant to say to use as a protest had been answered in that response and he was silent. The annoyance he had felt with Kaworu originally was slowly disappearing, he started to moreover appreciate his presence. For more than a year now, Shinji had been isolated in his room without any contact, and while anyone else would have frightened him, Kaworu was a good substitute. He was not human, yet knew enough if not little about how the human mind worked enough to be good company. There was something filled in his chest that had felt completely empty for so long, and so, he decided, he'd maybe come to like Kaworu if he tried.

He realized Kaworu was still staring with that calm collected smile, waiting for a response, and Shinji jumped.

"Oh, um…thank you…" he shifted awkwardly in his seat, "I think…I think I'd like to feel that feeling again maybe, not being alone I mean."

He looked up at the monitor a little more now and took a deep breath, exhaling, he had recollected himself,

"It's nice to meet you, Kaworu…kun" he paused, "Or would you rather be called KARUNA? Uh…"

Kaworu's expression didn't change he just laughed silently,

"Kaworu is just fine, thank you, it is truly delightful to finally meet you as well."


End file.
